It Only Works If You Use It
Posted on 01-Mar-10 by The Timekeeper
I know time and attendance vendors like to promise all sorts of benefits from the use of biometric systems, such as the end of costly “buddy punching” (where one employee clocks in or out for another who isn’t present) and more accurate time and attendance records overall.
Back in 2007, Atlantic City in New Jersey purchased a biometric system, paying approximately $195,000. I don’t know who the vendor was, or what the city might have been promised, but I suspect they haven’t experienced nearly as much in savings as the vendor said they would.
The problem, of course, is that they don’t seem to be using the system — which does tend to reduce the benefits they can expect to see from it.
According to a NJ state audit, the system has yet to be installed in many city departments, and is used by less than half of the employees it was intended for. Apparently all city employees, even those using the biometric system to clock in and out, continue to be paid on the basis of paper timesheets — which the auditors found were sometimes different from the biometric records. In other words, of the relatively few people who actually were using the biometric system, they’d clock in and out using the biometric system, then — knowing there’s an incontrovertable record of when they had arrived and departed from work — they’d still fill out different time on their manual timesheet.
Now, I’m sure at least in some cases the differences are innocent. Say, somebody just rounding off their time on the timesheet to the nearest 15 minutes (and maybe being a little generous with themselves about which 15 minute mark is “nearest” to the current time), but I would be willing to bet that at least in some cases the differences were intentional.
For those of you who are still thinking manual timesheets are *ldquo;good enough” for accuracy… ponder that for a few minutes. Then ponder how much time you might be paying for that isn’t being worked.
Does this make you feel at all like taking a second look at an automated time and attendance system? Or are you still willing to rely on those manual timesheets as the basis for your payroll?
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